InstantOC - dynamic occlusion culling + LOD

Hi,

looks very good project, Before buying is there any chances of android app, that we could test it on our phones?

 

Good morning Sir,
I'm currently working on a free InstantOC Tech Demo for iOS and Android, that will be available on the AppleAppStore and GooglePlayStore.
The Tech Demo will feature new graphics and simple game mechanics, to better resemble a real use case.
Meanwhile You could perhaps take a look at the Android video to get a taste of InstantOC on mobile.

 

Can you try to make it work with only tags? I really don't like that I have to add scripts to many objects, and also to prefabs which are instantiated at run time.

 

This would be my biggest request also.

 

I will investigate.

PS: Currently uploading on Youtube a new Tutorial: Tutorial 2 - the LOD system

 

Just added a new Video: InstantOC Tutorial 2 - the LOD system

 

Good morning!
time for an update, take a look at what's coming next:

InstantOC 1.3 beta preview

Full support of realtime shadows
(now occluded/invisible objects correctly cast shadows)

 

Great! works perfectly!
Max

 

InstantOC is useful in determinated situations but not in others.
If you have many big objects (like buildings) some behind others (like in the demo) then it can be very useful but if you have a big terrain with rocks and other objects with different shapes and they are widelly spreaded it is not very effective and you get worse performance because the cost of the raycasts (this is my case).

 

Good morning Angel_m,
In such a case, big terrain, many small/widely spreaded objects, I would suggest to also use a terrain split utility such this one, and set the "Lod Only" options for the spreaded/not easily occluded objects. This way You would have efficient occlusion culling for the splitted terrain pieces and LOD for the widely spreaded objects. Sidenote: if You use only the "Lod Only" option, You can use far less sample/rays (100 should be enough for a wide range of cases), so no oc, but still the performance gain of LOD

Let me know if You find this useful.

 

Did a Flash build of the InstantOC Demo with the Pro trial license I grabbed for testing the 1.3 realtime shadows support
..just couldn't resist

 

Yay! Might be picking this up at some point; you seem to have approved it quite a bit.

 

Good evening,
currently adding the finishing touches to InstantOC 1.3, will submit it to the Asset Store in the next hours.
The beta showed realtime shadow support, the final version has been heavily optimized, so that enabling this new feature does not affect the beloved InstantOC performance gain

 

Hi, I would like ot know, if it is written in JS or C#?

Thanks.

Augustas

 

Good morning Sir,
it's all written in C#

 

InstantOC 1.3 submitted to the Asset Store.
- full support of realtime shadows (for happy Unity Pro users)
- various core optimizations
should be live within 3-5 days.

 

InstantOC 1.3 is now live!

- full support of realtime shadows
- various core optimizations
- updated demo scene

 

Good evening,
I've found a bug in the helper prefab (IOChud), if realtime shadows are enabled, tweaking the hud GUI slowly degrades performance; disabling and re-enabling InstantOC pressing 'I' should reset performance.
It does NOT AFFECT the correct behavior of InstantOC if You don't have the IOChud helper prefab in the scene. So no problem in Your final builds.
Really sorry for the inconvenience, currently working on the solution (update coming soon)

 

did you have a chance to look at getting it to work with tags only, would love to try that out, Thanks

 

not quite yet!
As soon as the update with the bug fix for the IOChud prefab is ready, I will further investigate Your request.
But I should already say that there isn't any performance reason to do this,
the IOClod component is heavily optimized and fires LOD and/or Culling operations only when needed, and at different times across objects, so that also many thousands of game objects with the IOClod component attached, don't affect the performance of the scene/game. Indeed I think that "centralizing" all the system, placing it around the IOCcam component only will probably degrade the performance achieved with the current architecture.

 

for me it would be for saving me the time to add scripts to all my objects, the tags are already there for other porposes, so it basicly would save a lot of time. and it keeps things tidy, that i dont have to worry what scripts are doing on all the objects.

 

Ah ok! I see.

 

InstantOC 1.4 submitted to the Asset Store.
Some improvements, some bug-fixing

Here is a post with a detailed change-log.

 

Updated the WebPlayer with InstantOC 1.4 to showcase correct occlusion culling with realtime shadows.

Updated WebPlayer Demo

I will soon update the other builds too.

 

InstantOC 1.4 is now live on the Asset Store.

Blog post with detailed change-log

 

Thanks frenchfaso, great job!

 

Thank You for Your appreciation Massimiliano!
It would be great if You could find the time to leave a review on the Asset Store

 

How does the shadow support work? Does it mean it will cast shadow from occluded objects if the object is in a place where it should be occluded but the shadow isn't?

 

Good evening Sir,
exactly, with InstantOC occluded objects correctly cast shadows, the new WebPlayer Demo shows this off.
The object is still occluded, not wasting drawcalls/performance, but the realtime shadow is shown as expected.

 

I will do it for sure!

 

I was searching for occlusion in the asset store and your asset did not show up, this can lead to missed sales.



If your able to include the tag only feature, then I can automatically specify between which parts are going to be used by unity pro collusion and which parts by instantOC. Do you think it will come in an updated version?

Thanks

 

Thank You for pointing this out! I just updated the name to "InstantOC dynamic occlusion culling + LOD" this should be a good Asset Store SEO

Regarding the next update, I'm working on simplifying the setup of a scene with InstantOC, this means it will no more be necessary to attach the IOClod component to all objects, only to those you want to customize (lod-distances, lod-margin and lod-only values) and to the prefabs instantiated at runtime.
InstantOC will automatically apply the IOClod component to all objects on the layers flagged in the IOCcam component.
Basing it on Tags rather than Layers, would be less efficient, do You think this would even so be helpful in Your case?

PS: I'm also testing a new feature that will dramatically reduce the flickering effect of distant/sparse objects, if this will not cost too much on performance, InstantOC will become "nearly" perfect ;-)

 

Layers is fine, Thanks!

 

Good evening,
I was thinkering about adding a gallery on the InstantOC webpage (instead of the screenshots) for "InstantOC Powered" Games, like the one of the Unity website.
Would You be eventually interested in having Your InstantOC Powered Game/Creation be featured on this page?
Let me know, suggestions are welcome!

 

I would be interested to see what games use your software. Hopefully you get some games to showcase.

 

This released like over a month ago, i really doubt any one has something showcase-able after such a short time

It's a strictly technical system anyway and going on top of the houses in the demo and rotating around is probably close to a worse case, so i really don't see what a game showcase would add.

 

...

 

Hello Kuroato,
have You also added the IOClod component to the objects You want to manage with InstantOC?
Have You placed this objects on a layer managed by InstantOC?
Have You set up the IOCcam values?
Could You perhaps send me a screenshot of the scene that fires the error?

 

Yes, it's probably a little bit too early, but I really would love to see what beautiful Art You are going to create with Unity + InstantOC.
It would be really awesome for me to see for instance a gigantic sci-fi city, (like Coruscant ) or a breathtaking view like the Pandora jungle (ok, perhaps it's exaggerated )
We will see!
Anyway, when You will be ready and if You will be interested, simply contact me by mail, I will be glad to feature Your Creations on the InstantOC website

 

...

 

Reason is explained. You have selected more than one object.

 

Nope, it was a problem with the InstantOC Asset, Kuroato re-downloaded it and everything worked

 

...

 

How is the progress on the update?

I'm really keen to implement this in my project but like to wait for the next version which should be easier to set up.

 

Hello Lars,
InstantOC 1.5 will be submitted to the Asset Store within sunday, so if everything goes well, it should be online next week

 

Just submitted InstantOC 1.5 to the Asset Store,
here is a post with detailed change-log.

 

great looking forward to this

 

Hy Lars,
eventually I did the "auto-configuration" through TAG
You can specify a TAG in the IOCcam options, and all objects that correspond to this tag will be enhanced with the IOClod component at startup, if not already present. If You need to override global settings (lod distances etc.) You simply add it manually and set Your options.
If your object has children, You must assign the TAG only to the parent, otherwise You end up with multiple IOClod scripts in the child objects (that's not what You want!)

 

Hello there,
InstantOC 1.5 is now live on the Asset Store!

 

really like the new update, I have one request, how can I use multiple tags or layers to activate IOC on the game objects?
I would like to see an array for this so I can choose 2 or 3 tags, alternativly if I could tag/layer only objects which are not occluders I could select this way.
I use tags and layers already for some other porposes and like to use more tags in the IOC camera scripts.

Thanks